Elon and Appalachian State meet each other in a Southern Conference football game this weekend for the final time before going their separate ways.

Elon moves on to the Colonial Athletic Association next season, while Appalachian State steps up to the Sun Belt Conference and the higher playing field of the Football Bowl Subdivision.

So could Saturday night at Rhodes Stadium be the proverbial last dance between these teams, who not long ago tangled with league titles hanging in the balance?

It is until at least 2017, because the non-league spaces on Elon’s next three schedules are full.

Beyond that immediate window, school officials on both sides seem hopeful that the series — which the Mountaineers have dominated from a won / loss standpoint — can and will resume.

“I like the idea of playing App State,” Elon athletics director Dave Blank said. “I like everything about the series with App State. I’d like to beat them more, of course, but going forward it’s a good situation for us, and hopefully it is for them.

“It just has to kind of work itself out relative to how the programs advance in their new conferences. We’re both kind of feeling it out, saying, ‘where are we heading here?’ ”

Appalachian State’s desire for the future, athletics department spokesman Mike Flynn said, is to have one guaranteed money game against a major conference opponent — such as the Mountaineers’ date with Michigan next season — one home game against a Football Championship Subdivision school and home-and-home series with two FBS teams to couple with the Sun Belt’s eight league games.

In that scheduling formula, Flynn said Elon fits the mold for the type of FCS opponent that Appalachian State prefers.

“Elon makes a lot more sense than, say, Northern Arizona,” Flynn said. “We would like to keep our non-conference opponents as close to this region as we can. Especially with our conference footprint expanding, it makes sense to play as many local teams as possible in our non-conference schedule. I think Elon would fit the bill.”

Blank said for Elon, a financial component enters the mix when considering the possibility of future football games against Appalachian State.

The Phoenix collected six-figure paydays from FBS opponents Duke, Vanderbilt, North Carolina and Georgia Tech in recent seasons, and is scheduled to play Duke again in 2014 and Boston College in 2015.

For example, Elon earned $250,000 from Georgia Tech for this season’s opener and will make $400,000 for the game at Boston College in two years — windfalls that help fund Elon’s entire athletics department.

“Philosophically, we have to decide is App State in the Sun Belt going to grow to replace that slot?” Blank said. “What do we want to do with that slot going forward? What’s the difference between playing App State or Duke and Boston College?

“Those are the ‘who do we want to play’ kinds of stuff that we’ll have to figure out.”

Flynn said Appalachian State, six months into its two-year transition up to the FBS, has encountered some bumps in the building of its future schedules.

Next season, the Mountaineers have games locked in at Michigan and against Campbell, a non-scholarship FCS program, but need two more non-league opponents, preferably from the FBS.

“We’ll kind of see how that goes,” Flynn said. “We made this announcement (to go to the FBS) in March. Finding two FBS opponents to start home-and-home series with, on 17 months notice, is very difficult.”

Appalachian State has won 17 straight football meetings with Elon and is 10-0 against the Phoenix in Southern Conference play. The year was 1964 the last time Elon defeated Appalachian State.

After the Mountaineers claimed back-to-back-to-back FCS national championships in 2005, 2006 and 2007, the games between Elon and Appalachian State in November 2008 and 2009 were for the Southern Conference title.

Appalachian State always has generated to box office success for the Phoenix. The top two crowds in Rhodes Stadium history are games against the Mountaineers — 14,167 in 2009 and 13,100 in 2007.